Rosedale Tower aka KY Tower - MP 3.2 - Kansas City, KS - Kansas City Subdivision

Fabulous stuff everyone.

Once we move to the new house/layout space, the kid and I haven't fully determined what or where to model, but if we stick to the Kansas City area, I may have to find a way to include this interlocking plant, considering all of the information that is available.

Best Regards,

 

Here are some more aerials of the area described.

I need to go down there and stomp around a bit.

 

Tom and Richard,

You might want to try the fallen Flags web site. Please see http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/kct/kct.html.

Many of the photographs on the site are from the Kansas City Terminal (KCT) Railway. They were contributed by Nicholas S. Muff, MD. His work on his Kansas City Southern (KCS) and KCT model railroad has appeared several times in RMC and Prototype Modeler magazines.

29th Street Tower
Please see http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/kct/kct-29twr-arn.jpg.

View looking railroad north toward the KCT engine facilities. The track in the upper right is the start of the Fairgrounds Branch. The tracks curving off to the northeast between the 3rd and 4th telegraph poles are the passenger main connecting tracks to Kansas City Union Station. Frisco, Katy and Missouri Pacific (MP) Railroad trains used this connection. The latter two railroads had trackage rights on the Frisco from Kansas City to connections with their lines at Paola, KS.

The tracks curving away to the upper left lead to the Tower 4 crossing of the KCT, the Frisco's connections to the Kansas City Stockyards and ultimately Frisco's 19th Street Yard. The tracks at the bottom lead to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas (MKT) Railroad's Glen Park Yard and further south to Frisco's Rosedale Yard. Today this site is behind Ponack's Mexican Restaurant on Southwest Boulevard, below the I-35 overpass bridge. This location is across the street to the northeast from and very close to Schutte Lumber.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Mark

 

This afternoon, I went for a walk in the weeds at Rosedale.

I could not find any remnants of foundation either direction, railroad north or south. I did find a culvert that carries a creek underground across Rosedale yard. The concrete opening had the year 1909 cast into the concrete.

This culvert is directly adjacent to the location of the Ash Grove Cement facility. Attached is a picture with the culvert location circled. With this located, perhaps some right of way chart might help us nail down the location of KY Tower in relation to the culvert.

 

After stomping around in Rosedale this past Saturday and looking at this from the ground, and, looking at current satellite imagery as well as aerial photos from 1959 on www.historicaerials.com combined with the photos that Richard Napper posted, I think I have determined the location of KY Tower.

( http://www.historicaerials.com?poi=13263 )

As I posted previously, on the ground Saturday, I found a concrete arch at the opening of a 3' diameter culvert that passes under Rosedale Yard with the year 1909 cast into the arch. The arch and culvert are directly behind the unloading shed of the Ash Grove Cement transfer plant.

There is a diversion channel running parallel to the Frisco mainline that feeds this culvert. The north end of the diversion channel ends behind the south property line for Rosedale BBQ. The diversion channel is visible in both the current satellite imagery as well as the 1959 aerial.

As Karl pointed out, the 1980 track chart shows the culvert pipe at about MP 3.2.

In Richard's photo, the tower sits at a point that appears to be at the end of a curve in the mainline. There is a rise in the terrain to the northeast behind KY tower. Also you can see the south end of a white building to the right of the tracks for Cooper's Lead in the background.

Directly to the north of KY Tower there appears to be a slight ridge running parallel to the mainline. Additionally, the points of the turnout for Cooper's Lead are facing a second set of points that would direct traffic off-mainline to the left going south. So we are looking for such a location, at least formerly.

1) If you look at current satellite imagery, approximately mid-block between Lincoln Street and Hill Street is where the "Cooper's Lead" currently comes out of the bushes; however, if you look at the 1959 aerial on historicaerials.com there is another possibility just northwest of Rosedale BBQ.

2) In both images, you can see that just southwest of Ash Grove Cement, there is some visual evidence both on the ground and in satellite imagery of prior road bed for a siding angling off to the southeast.

3) If you are on the ground today where the mainline is still straight, the line of the straight track lines up with the south corner of the Bunge Elevator's central head or work house lift tower like in Richard's photos.

4) The first real rise of ground begins at the southwest corner of the parking lot for Rosedale BBQ.

5) When standing on the mainline behind Ash Grove Cement, the south end of the current Batliner Paper recycling center would be visible if the trees were not grown up north of the diversion channel.

6) Currently, parallel to the mainline, on the west side of the diversion channel there is a slight ridge separating the diversion channel from the mainline.

With all of the evidence in, I believe Karl's original guess was very close. My suggested location would be right behind the unloading shed of Ash Grove Cement, just south of the arch and culvert I discovered, next to the big tree in current imagery. The tower operator would have driven down Hill Street to get to the parking next to the tower.

The image below has been rotated to better illustrate the alignments of everything. North is to the left.

 

Karl, thanks for the 1977 track chart.

That's going to be useful for our modeling efforts. Ben is deciding that he wants to stick with modeling Kansas City/Olathe for the SL-SF and ATSF in the new house.

Great railroad archaeology work, Keith. Sometimes it's tough to find a substitute for field investigation.

All of the above messages made for some fun reading!

Best Regards,